I hadn't been on C&SC very long when, as is usual with a hefty group test, I (as the then recently appointed chief sub-editor, having washed up on these glistening shores from an undistinguished career in local newspapers and corporate mags) was roped in with everyone else, from the bin-emptier all the way down the Haymarket foodchain to the editor, to help out. Being a bit wet behind the ears – I knew and owned classics but hadn't ever been exposed to the array on test that day – I turned up at what was known simply as Chobham (us locals knew it better as Longcross even then), the tank testing facility on the edge of Chobham Common frequented ad nauseam by all the British motoring mags.
Oddly, I can't even remember what car I was required to drive down there, maybe because all the "getting there" stories (always a highlight of big C&SC photoshoots) were so soundly trumped by DTR European Sportscars boss Paul De Turris, who had for some reason departed from his usual Fiat 124 fare to bring along a Daimler SP250. I can only imagine that it may have been on the forecourt of (can't spell) Garry and (can't spell) Shortt's Classic Chrome that was then opposite (actually still is, it is DTR that has moved) in Mortlake. Anyway, an excited but agitated Paul turned up (only just, by all accounts) in this Dart regaling us with tales of vivid acceleration, impressive even, followed by lurid bodyflex and then terrifying chassis whip on the motorway. All other arrival memories have been supplanted by this and gone.
There followed one of the most free days I have ever encountered on the magazine: we had 10 sports cars (actually I can't remember the real number either, but it's always 10) and the run of Chobham all day. At this point you are probably wondering why my memories are so hazy and I haven't been so professional as to refresh them. Well, that is deliberate precisely because I want to see what is important in retrospect without such an aide memoire. There are two main "bits" – well that's the motoring hacks' technical term – to Chobham, the outer ring and the snake, actually a couple of tricky curves (bends would be giving them too much credit) with a slight crest in the middle. The latter is overhung by trees so is the spot where all those sexy leaf-strewn (or badly Photoshopped out leaves – look for blurry or repeated spots on the grille – depending on the mores of the photographer) shoots were done.
